Northwest Digest

JUNEAU - The Juneau Assembly will preside over the Hood v. Planning Commission appeal hearing at 5 p.m. Monday at City Hall.

Citizen Dixie Hood filed an appeal with the city in June over an "after-the-fact" variance granted by the Juneau Board of Adjustment to Secon construction company for building a truck scale on Anka Street too close to Lemon Creek. City code requires a 50-foot setback from anadromous fish streams for construction projects.

The Board of Adjustment granted a variance at the May 22 Juneau Planning Commission meeting after it came to light that Secon had constructed the truck scale about 28 feet from Lemon Creek and without the proper permits.

Secon built the scale for the $27.5 million Sunny Point Intersection Project.

Coast Guard saves boat from sinking

JUNEAU - A houseboat was saved from sinking near Ketchikan on Saturday morning.

The boat owned by Evergreen Timber was located about 10 miles northeast of Ketchikan in Coon Cove.

Responders from Coast Guard Station Ketchikan, Marine Safety Detachment Ketchikan and Southeast Alaska Petroleum Resource Organization (SEAPRO) arrived Friday evening to find the boat tied to shore and taking on water due to a large tidal flow.

The vessel was listing on the starboard quarter and had about 6,000 gallons of diesel fuel oil on board, the Coast Guard said. Station Ketchikan began de-watering operations and fuel vents were plugged. Efforts to prevent sinking were successful and the houseboat was stable Saturday.

No injuries were reported.

Coast Guard finds stolen boat in Juneau

JUNEAU - The Coast Guard and Juneau Police Department found a recreational vessel in the Gastineau Channel that had reportedly been stolen.

Authorities also took an unnamed man into custody who claimed the vessel belonged to him. The Coast Guard says he couldn't produce any paperwork to prove ownership.

The missing vessel Julie Mary was initially spotted by the owner's wife near the Juneau Yacht Club and she notified authorities.

A Coast Guard team took the man into custody and brought him to Juneau police. More information was not available Saturday afternoon.

World Affairs Council hosts presentation

JUNEAU - Christopher Brown will present "Issues the U.S. downplays at its peril" at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Juneau Assembly Chambers. The presentation is sponsored by the Juneau World Affairs Council.

Brown is research director at the Southern Center for International Studies in Atlanta, Ga. He is co-author of 12 Southern Center publications in the "World in Transition" multimedia educational series, including the recently published "South Asia in Transition." He has participated in numerous conferences in the United States and Europe.

For more information, visit www.jwac.org/.

Fuel, soil mixture spill cleaned up

KETCHIKAN - The Coast Guard says it has completed cleaning up a petroleum and soil spill in the waters near the Tongass Narrows near Ketchikan.

The 1,000-gallon spill occurred when a container of a soil and petroleum product fell from an Alaska Marine Line barge traveling from Juneau to Ketchikan.

The Guard estimated that 100 gallons of the 1,000 gallons of product was petroleum.

The clean up was done in cooperation with the Southeast Alaska Petroleum Resource Organization.

The Coast Guard is investigating the spill.

Coast Guard releasesribbon seal into wild

SEWARD -The Alaska SeaLife Center has returned a ribbon seal to the wild.

Coast Guard officials said the 250-pound female seal, named Diamond, was taken by plane from Kenai to Cold Bay where she was released.

Diamond was found last August about a half mile inland at the Palmer Hayflats State Game Refuge. The seals' normal habitat is in the Bering Sea.

Tim Lebling, Alaska SeaLife Center coordinator, said Diamond has a satellite tag that will allow the center to track her until she molts in June or July.

Officials said Diamond is one of an unknown number of ribbon seals.

University inks deals with Air China, PenAir

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The University of North Dakota aerospace school has signed new agreements with Air China and Alaska-based Peninsula Airways.

The flight school already has 17 Air China student pilots. The new agreement will bring 57 more students to the Grand Forks campus in early January.

PenAir, a commuter airline that operates in southwest Alaska, will recruit pilots and mechanics through the flight training center that UND Aerospace operates in Mesa, Ariz., in conjunction with Chandler Gilbert Community College.